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Ephesians

About this book
Chapter 1

1 From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints [in Ephesus], the faithful in Christ Jesus. 2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! 3 Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ.⁠ 4 For he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. 5 He did this by predestining us to adoption as his legal heirs through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure of his will— 6 to the praise of the glory of his grace that he has freely bestowed on us in his dearly loved Son. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our offenses, according to the riches of his grace 8 that he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight.⁠ 9 He did this when he revealed to us the mystery of his will,⁠ according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, 10 toward the administration of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ—the things in heaven and the things on earth. 11 In Christ we too have been claimed as God’s own possession, since we were predestined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will 12 so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, would be to the praise of his glory. 13 And when you heard the word of truth (the gospel of your salvation)—when you believed in Christ—you were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory. 15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you when I remember you in my prayers. 17 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, will give you spiritual wisdom and revelation in your growing knowledge of him,⁠ 18 —since the eyes of your heart have been enlightened—so that you can know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the incomparable greatness of his power toward us who believe, as displayed in the exercise of his immense strength. 20 This power he exercised in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms 21 far above every rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named,⁠ not only in this age but also in the one to come.⁠ 22 And God put all things under Christ’s feet, and gave him to the church as head over all things. 23 Now the church is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Texts in conversation

Compare 2 Enoch 20:1 and Ephesians 1:21

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · New Testament

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Summary

Ephesians and 2 Enoch reflect a common view of a structured hierarchy in divine and heavenly powers. Ephesians lists rulers, authorities, powers, and dominions, while 2 Enoch uses the same terms to classify angels in the seventh heaven.

Passages

2 Enoch 20:1

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Secrets of Enoch
1 And those two men lifted me up from there onto the seventh Heaven, and I saw there a very great light, and fiery troops of great archangels, bodiless forces, and dominions, orders and governments, cherubim and seraphim, thrones and many-eyed ones, nine regiments, the Ioanit stations of light, and I became afraid, and began to tremble with great terror, 2 and those men took me, and led me after them, and said to me: 3 'Have courage, Enoch, do not fear,' and showed me the Lord from a distance, sitting on His very high throne. For what is there on the tenth heaven, since the Lord dwells here? God is in the tenth heaven, in the Hebrew language he is called Aravat. And all the heavenly troops would come and stand on the ten steps according to their rank, and would bow down to the Lord,
1–100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Enoch

Ephesians 1:21

New Testament
19 and what is the incomparable greatness of his power toward us who believe, as displayed in the exercise of his immense strength. 20 This power he exercised in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms 21 far above every rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And God put all things under Christ’s feet, and gave him to the church as head over all things.
90–100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Ephesians

References

"... The supreme exaltation of Christ is therefore complete in both time and space, both vertically and horizontally. Archē, which is translated by the NIV as “rule” and by the KJV as “principality”, means the beginner or first person, chief, the original or active cause of something in a place. It occurs only once in the Septuagint, in Jeremiah 13:18 where it is associated with the king, queen mother, greatness and glory. In this sense, archē is related to political rule and authority, which influences human events, actions and belief systems. The term is however used in the pseudepigraphic book of 2 Enoch 20-22 for angelic beings. 2 Enoch 20:1, for example, lists four of the terms used by Paul in Ephesians 1:21 among ten ranks of angels in the seventh heaven. Similarly, 1 Enoch 61:10 describes how “the Lord of Spirits” will “summon all the host of the heavens, and all the holy ones above, and the host of God, the Cherubic, Seraphim and Ophannim, and all the angels of power, and all the angels of principalities” (compare 2 Maccabees 3:24, Testament of Levi 3). Hendrik Berkhof is therefore also right when he concludes that in the intertestamental apocalyptic literature, archē is used for the “classes of angels located in the lower and higher heavens” ..."
Annang Asumang, Powers of Darkness: An Evaluation of Three Hermeneutical Approaches to the Evil Powers in Ephesians (Conspectus: The Journal of South Afrian Theological Seminary, Vol. 5, 2008), 1–19.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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2 Enoch 20:1 and Ephesians 1:21

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